1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an apparatus or system to monitor inlet water usage, such as in a home, boat, RV or commercial well water or any type of water from a city water supply to determine if an excess amount of water is being expended due to a leak, pipe rupture, or over usage and to provide an alarm and to control excess water usage. In particular, the invention utilizes a portable inlet water control and alarm that can measure water usage (volume per unit time), determine that an excess amount per unit time has been exceeded, control the continued flow or stoppage of inlet water, and provide an alarm to a remote source through a telephone line to alert a responsible party.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of control and alarm systems for detecting leaks in gaseous or liquid pipes is known in the prior art. It is often desirable to monitor especially hazardous material, such as explosive gases or highly destructive liquids which have to be transported by pipe from one area to another, to insure that there is no underground leakage. U.S. Pat. No. 3,664,357, issued May 23, 1972 to Kreiss, shows a pipe line leakage detection method and installation which includes a means for sounding an alarm and a means for preventing further leakage of liquid in the pipeline. This is a complex system. U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,285, issued Jun. 6, 1972 to Wright et al., shows a system for detecting relatively small leaks in partially inaccessible pipelines having high throughputs. U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,220, issued Apr. 30, 1974 to Ottenstein et al., shows a pipeline system and method that can determine leakage of liquid from a pipeline that extends between two remote stations. U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,666, issued Jan. 10, 1989 to Baxter et al., shows a method and apparatus for monitoring fluid flow to accurately determine whether an abnormal flow condition or a catastrophic flow condition exists in such a supply system. Typically, the systems described herein are integrally built into the overall liquid/fluid transport systems, are fairly complex in design, and are costly. U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,653, issued Oct. 12, 1993 to Tucker et al., shows a control system for automatic fluid shutoff that detects unwanted flow. U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,884, issued Feb. 22, 1994 to Cohen, shows a water flow monitoring system for determining the presence of leaks and stopping flow impelling lines.
The present invention provides a portable, easily installed, fluid volume per unit time counter, control, and alarm system that can provide an alarm remotely through a telephone line when people are not at their home or business. In particular, the present invention would be useful in a vacation home or in a home where it is desired to keep the water supply on for normal activities such as adding water to a swimming pool and lawn watering, while at the same time allowing remote monitoring of the overall system.
An example of usage would be in areas where city or municipal water is quite expensive. Many of these areas have vacation or winter type homes in which the homeowners are not always present year-round in their homes. The Florida Keys would be an example. However, the homeowners may travel back and forth and require daily activities in the homes through caretakers and the like, where it is not desirable to shut the water supply off completely while the homeowner is absent. The systems can be used to reduce consumption by having available a visual display of current usage.
The present invention provides an easily installed, inexpensive device that will allow a homeowner to monitor the amount of water consumed for given periods of time and an alarm system to alert the homeowner at a remote location through the telephone lines if an excessive amount of water has been consumed. The system also provides for a control system to shut down the input of water if a particular volume of water per period of time has been exceeded.